rjshae

Yeah, I hear that. I'm at the age where I can't read the fine print. My old college notes look so tiny now I can barely make them out. I have to keep one of those magnifiers with a light handy so I can read things like the prescription labels. Plus I wake up with the eyelashes all gunked up and I have to scrape them clean. Yuck. One current media trend I really don't like is when they display smart phone IM-ing from a distance so that you can barely make out the text. Then they whip the view away before you can finish squinting at it. They should at least display it in close-up. But I suppose the only audience that matters is the sharp-eyed kids.

Charlie who? Well my sympathies for his family. The radical right live in their own alternate version of reality, so I'm not expecting much reliable information about this event from them. Hopefully the legal investigation is more productive.

It's rated very high on the rotten tomato meter, so I guess most critics don't agree with you. It is, of course, pretty culturally dated at this point, but that's also interesting from a historical perspective.

I don't think most scientists are still denying that UAPs exist. But it's still not proof that they are space aliens. I like to speculate they are some yet unexplained physical phenomenon. For example, we've only had video evidence of sprites since 1989. My more far-fetched alternate explanation is that they are human-built devices from a different time (or dimension). (Which would be almost as interesting as space aliens.)

Technically, the US hasn't declared war since World War II, so we haven't really lost anything. These have all been Presidential actions, and unless Congress formally declares war you can't expect the full backing of the country or its economy. Hence the supposed lack of "victories". It has nothing to do with the name change. I shudder to think what would happen if little Trump takes the US into another (non-internal) conflict.

Trump celebrates West Point alumni group canceling award ceremony to honor Tom Hanks Sometimes DJT can be a very small-minded man. Well... maybe not sometimes. Little Trump.

Ten years later, Pillars of Eternity is getting a turn-based combat mode "Testing starts later this year." So... maybe by Winter?

I'm watching Mrs. Davis on Peac*ck. In some ways it reminds me of The Preacher, in that it's both religious in theme and weirdly funny and irreverent.

The Senate is trying to speed up the process now so that entire clown cars can be confirmed at once. Republicans consider changing Senate rules to speed confirmation of Trump nominees It's like a Shiners parade.

For the Sounders, after being all Messi'd up...

Apparently it's okay for the US to shoot up non-military ships in international waters now. What are we, Somalia? I suppose it's easier to maintain a constant state of emergency that way.

Speaking of illegal, a judge has ruled that deployment of the National Guard to LA was a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. They have no shame.

Some German sausage Prez just keeps on...

Now for something completely random...

The first time I saw AI try to draw conclusions from something I'd written, it was so blatantly wrong that I was flabbergasted. Granted the conclusions it drew were based on some subtle inferences from the technical wording, but a normal person just wouldn't reach those conclusions. Sure, you can blame me as the author; I did rewrite the text slightly to make sure the AI would interpret it correctly. Nonetheless, AI hallucinations are a real problem, especially when they occur in STEM fields, as well as the legal professions.

Let's call him Marvin

Music for 1950s aliens to invade a planet.

Can't stop watching a TV show? That may be a good thing I just knew it had to be doing some good. 😉

Among other things, the flag stands for the freedom to burn the flag. So there's that. Most people here would never burn the flag.

I'm retired so I normally don't need an alarm, except on rare occasions. But I wouldn't trust that I remembered to recharge the phone properly, so I'll stick with the radio alarm clock.

I finally managed to get in, although I had to do it via a back door method. They started sending me occasional spam e-mails, and one of them let me do a sign in. Good grief.

Can I ask why you think it goes too far? At worse it can be mildly insulting, but I don't consider it a priority. There are western states that prohibit flag desecration (France and Germany) and those that don't (Canada and Britain). In either case, it doesn't appear to impact them in any significant way. I suspect this is more of a priority for flag-hugging Republicans, and I suspect that prohibiting it in apparent violation of the First Amendment is a slippery slope.

U.S. has tariff exemptions for goods under the 2020 free trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Apparently, Canada is matching those. Canada will match US tariff exemptions under USMCA trade pact, Prime Minister Carney says So, not as bad as it seemed?